No doubt about it, golf is a lifestyle, not just a sport. Also add this into the mix. Can you get up a game and step up to home plate at Yankee Stadium ? Can you choose up sides and have a basketball game at Madison Square Garden ? I think not. I've played a number of golf courses that have hosted PGA or USGA events, as I'm sure that most TT Members have also. Couple that with the fact that as long as you are able to walk up to the 1st tee you can play this game. The game of golf has no equal.

Dave
You pretty much covered all the bases. My Dad was a golfer, and where I grew up in the inner city, the nearest tree was 3 blocks away. He took me to the golf course to walk and watch at age 10. When I saw all those trees, landscaped fairways, and huge greens, I knew this was the game for me. A cut down set of 5,7, & 9 irons and a three wood and I was on my way.

Deno

Good read. My favorite part of the golf journey is simple, growing the game. I have shown members of my church the game and now play regularly with them. I have joined countless foursomes over the years and seen new people join in and get the bug. Now is the time in my life to grow the game within my family with my wife and my 7 year old daughter. We practice and play together and love the idea of raising a golf family.

Nice post Dave,
I started at 10 and have been playing off and on for the last 51 years, mostly on now during the season. There is no sport like golf, even the best athletes in the world struggle to learn the game. One aspect I love, I was a pretty good athlete growing up, and, although I could never make it to the pro ranks, on certain days, I can hit a golf shot that no one in the world could have hit better, whether it is holing a bunker shot or making a 40 ft. downhill double breaker.
Many memories, packing 36 or more in on junior golf days, my culinary externship to cally Gardens where I cooked at night and had golfing privileges during the day, and the group of guys I have been playing with for the last ten years or so. So many more, but all of them fond. Thanks for the prod to reminisce.

My Dad didn't play much golf, but my next door neighbor did. He was retired and in his 70's. He knew I played baseball and asked if I wanted to give golf a try. I tagged along on a 9 hole scenic little public course north of Boston, and he let me play a few shots out of his bag. I picked it up family quick, and I was hooked! At the end of the summer he actually gave me on old set of clubs he had in his garage.I'll never forget his kindness.That was almost 50 years ago.

Preface: This kind of turned into an edited down version of my life story. Sorry. I tried to keep it short.

Growing up as the son of a truck-driver dad (who was NOT a golfer) and a stay-at-home mom, my opportunities to experience the nicer things in life were pretty slim. I don't remember today how it came about, but I began caddying at a very exclusive country club in Connecticut. It only lasted a month or so. I was maybe 12 or 13. I was mesmerized by the classiness of it all and the beauty of the amazing landscapes. To this day I believe it is why I am such a traditionalist regarding golf. But that's another story.

Soon, I was able to piece together a set of entry-level clubs I bought, one at a time, from the sporting goods section of a local department store. I played with other neighborhood kids maybe once or twice a month during summer vacations at the local muni, where kids under 16 played for probably less than ten bucks with a city junior pass. Lessons never even crossed my mind.

I went on to work at that same muni over summer break when I was 19. I got to play for free so, played a lot more. Still no lessons, though. But my interest grew in the sport, being on the course everyday and really learning a lot about course set up.

However, I was pulled in another direction in my early 20s and ended up spending most of my days as a hardcore sailboat racer and cruiser, logging over 100,000 sea miles, all the while telling myself that someday, if and when I give the sailing life up, I'd take golf back up.

I played little bits of golf here and there throughout my career in business, but didn't have the time to really give it my full attention. Sailing was all-consuming. One year, though, after deciding to sell my second to last boat, but before I actually purchased my final one, I had some time on my hands. So, I bought a real set of golf clubs and proceeded to play maybe 25 times over a 3 or 4 month period. I realized, I really liked this game. But, my new boat beckoned and I went back to playing golf once or twice a year. Some years, none at all. Over the almost 30 years I owned large sailboats, I probably played 50 rounds of golf. Just for the fun of it, and/or for business outings. I always enjoyed it, but delivering yachts all over the eastern seaboard, racing and cruising back and forth to Bermuda from New England numerous times, as well as cruising (and racing) throughout the Caribbean, there was just no room left to focus on golf the way I knew would be necessary to really get better at the game.

In 2000, I took a respite from the corporate world and sailed my boat to the Caribbean for an extended stay. I took that set of golf clubs along, with hopes I'd get to play some. I stayed for nearly three years and played golf at St. Thomas's Mahogany Run exactly twice (but hit found golf balls off the dock regularly). I was still too busy captaining charters around the islands and too broke to afford resort-type greens fees at the only course on the island. (I can assure you charter captains in the Caribbean who still have sizeable yacht mortgages to pay off, don't have a lot of expendable income. But I digress.)

In 2002 I sold my last boat and moved back ashore for good. I hung up my sailing gloves and let my USCG license expire. I was determined to get back to the sport that once sucked me in as a young teen, and I now had the time to commit my full attention.

I've been at it for 18 years now and take it as seriously, or even more so, than I did my sailing. I play 150-200 rounds a year these days and practice virtually everyday. If there's no snow, I'm on the golf course all winter. If it's 105 degrees and humid, I'm on the golf course. It's what I do and who I am. I'm a senior golfer now, but can still get around 18 from the blue tees carding respectable numbers. My commitment is unwavering.

My sailing life was wonderful and I wouldn't trade it for an instant, but I just wish I had been able to be even half this serious about golf at a much younger age. I accomplished a lot as a sailor, but who knows what I could have accomplished on the golf course. That said, the journey isn't over yet. I still have a few more years to keep trying. A Super-Senior Club Championship might still have my name engraved on the trophy if I keep working hard. Never give up. Love this game.

Wow Doug good thing you kept it short.:)

Grew up on a farm in East Tennessee and very little time for sports. 40s, 50s, 60s. Father referred to game as cow pasture pool and was one redneck who would blow at golfers when passed a course. Was on track team senior year in HS. HS to college for a short term and then to USAF. Got married, had family and medically discharged after six years. Entered private sector and worked as manager for about twenty years. Played organized softball and on traveling team for about 26 years. Life was around work and softball. Met new wife in 1977 moved to SC in 1984 and decided to take up golf and play softball too. Did not work out and hamstrings started interfering with love of softball. SC is a great place to play golf and have worked hard on the game. Retired in 2011, and play three days a week, went to work for golf company in April 2016 part time. Played in tournament golf, volunteer for PGA, LPGA events for over 25 years in the Charleston area. Have had three hole in ones, and my lowest round came when I was 68, a 69. Have played in Ireland and Novia Scotia and all over the US. My wife and I love to travel, wherever it leads us, domestic or international, collect art and going to TT events. I look forward to working at the PGA Championships in May 2021 and hope to see some of you there. Golf was a late start in life for me, but one I do not regret. I am self taught, but along the way realized the seeing a good PGA instruction is most beneficial. My clubs are all Titleist and I have two great fitters in my area and they ensure that I have the right combinations. Do I have any regrets starting late in life, NO. Because I could not have afforded it earlier in my life. You do things in life when the opportunity is there! With respect. Cheers.

It sure is, young man!
I started golf in my mid 30s. Love the game then like I do now.
My son started recently. He's in his early 30s. Best feeling I've had in golf.
Getting close to my retirement now.
Looking forward to weekday golf.
Looking forward to golfing without an alarm clock outside of my regular games.
Looking forward to more soulful rounds alone on foot.
Saved most my cards in a shoe box. I'm the only one who looks back at it. lol
I get a chuckle from some of it- they're all with dates. My eyes gets misty from a few.
When I go, my wife will only toss them all away in a bin.
But I'll have a special place for the cards that my son is with me in a round.
Maybe that'll be saved... big maybe... lol

I also look back ay my cards No'l, and keep them in a shoebox. My son asked once why I look back at those old scorecards, I told him when he gets to be my age(64) he'll understand.

Great responses! All different, but so many similarities- i too save scorecards and as a kid i had a golf calendar in my room and i would write down the course i played, the number of holes, score and which holes i birdied - still have those calendars. The kindness i experienced from older players seems universal. And that feeling of no one else in the world could play that shot better is a wonderful feeling. I discovered the game, mostly by chance. I was 12yo and just missed making it on to the baseball all star team that was going to travel throughout the summer playing baseball tournaments, i was bummed, but turned out that was quite a group i was competing with - that team won State my junior year and one guy made it to the majors and several played minor league ball. My buddy who also missed making all-stars called me up and asked if i wanted to join a golf camp at the local course. It was $5 for the week, 3 hours of instruction each day and a competition on the 5th and final day. My response was "golf? Seriously?" He said he had gone a couple times and it was cool so he convinced me to tag along. I had to borrow my mom's Kmart special 1970's clubs that she used maybe once. My dad had some clubs, but played maybe 3-4 times a year. I was clueless about everything on the first day if that camp. It was for ages 12-16 and on the last day they had a long drive, putting and chipping competition with lunch and an awards ceremony. Being one of the youngest kids there out of about 40 kids i took 2nd in the long drive and 1st in putting. I get picked up holding 2 trophies and thought to myself, maybe golf was going to be my sport, clearly more success than baseball and i liked that it was an individual sport. I got my dad hooked and when i was 14 i got my own subscription to golf digest - my mom had to ask both me and my dad if i really wanted that lol i was elated, i read every instruction page, checked the new equipment etc. I read and reread Tom Watson's "how to get up and down" book about a thousand times, along with jack's "golf my way" book. I was obsessed and my dad came along for the ride. I was able to buy a junior annual membership for $240 - it paid for itself after about a month. Being a little late to the game by junior golf standards my first tournament i shot 128 against kids my own age that shot 86 and 92 respectively- 3 years later all 3 of us were shooting even par. My das would drop me off at 8am and pick me up at 8pm all summer long and enjoyed playing with friends, strangers, young, old, but also enjoyed the solo rounds. I learned respect, etiquette, manners and how to behave when you win and when you lose. Those junior days was right before the Tiger boom, no proV1's or 460cc drivers and still to this day has a pureness of the game that i miss. Just crazy to think what one phone call to join a junior camp has completely changed the course of my life. I have seen the best players in the world in person; jack, arnie, tiger, norman, couples, faldo, watson, stewart, mickelson, daly, rory, spieth, dj, sergio, adam scott etc. Met the Legendary Bob Vokey a couple times and even got a handwritten card from him. I have played world class courses and switched careers to get back to doing something i truly love. The family tree is rooted deep in Scotland and to make a trip one day to play where it all began, well, i may need some help teeing my ball up with the tears in my eyes. Love this game.

For me looking back at old cards is kind of like Danny DeVito's coin collection in "Throw Mamma from the Train". They all mean something special, and bring back great memories.